Speeches

I rise today for the 300th time with my trusty, increasingly battered Time to Wake Up chart, to try to rouse this chamber to the looming dangers caused by fossil fuel pollution. I’m not sure whether this is a triumph... Continue Reading

Mr./Madam President, today, I rise for the 299th time to alert this somnolent body to the dangers of climate change. Since President Trump’s inauguration in January, he has embarked upon a series of actions that quite simply defy reality.  On... Continue Reading

I rise today to honor my friend, Dominick Ruggerio, who was both the President and the “Dean” of the Rhode Island Senate.  President Ruggerio, affectionately known as “Donny,” passed away last month, leaving behind his children, Amanda and Charles, and... Continue Reading

I rise today for the 298th time to call attention to the looming climate calamity.  I went last week to the Our Ocean conference, a conference founded by the United States of America, and dedicated to protecting our oceans before... Continue Reading

Madam President, I am here for the 35th time to call attention to the rightwing scheme to capture our courts and justice system, now out to target and persecute Trump political enemies and do Trump political favors. We have heard... Continue Reading

Mr. President, I rise for the 297th time to draw this chamber’s attention to the serious threat climate change poses to American families.  Earlier this month, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced plans to reconsider over 30 rules and... Continue Reading

Mr. President, I rise now for the 296th time to direct our attention to what is coming at us through fossil fuel emissions causing our natural systems to be significantly disturbed. We are not yet all the way through the... Continue Reading

Mr. President, this is, I think, my 295th ‘‘Time to Wake Up’’ speech, with my increasingly battered graphic, which the Smithsonian has asked for as the most used graphic in Senate history, but I wouldn’t let them have it until... Continue Reading

Mr. President, 6 years ago, I sent all of my colleagues in the Senate this binder of economic warnings about climate change. Here it is. The warning signs were flashing, so I shared all of those different reports. When I... Continue Reading

Madam President, I am here for the 34th scheme speech on the right-wing billionaires’ covert scheme to capture and control our Supreme Court. And I am here to report real progress in our work to restore the integrity of the... Continue Reading